John Slattery, 'Mad Men' Star, Writing & Directing Film

John Slattery stars as the man who controls fate in "The Adjustment Bureau," but it seems he got a little celestial help when it came to a special new project he's finally developing.

The "Mad Men" star sat down with The Huffington Post on Friday and revealed that, after 20+ years in Hollywood, he's taking entire control of a project for the very first time.

"I have a script that I just finished that I'm trying to work out the rights situation," he said, "and that's why I asked to direct 'Mad Men,' which was a great experience, but it's someone else's vision, it's clearly Matt Weiner's vision of the show."

Weiner is the creator and executive producer of "Mad Men." Slattery directed the fourth and twelfth episodes of the show's fourth and most recent season.

The movie, Slattery said, is based on a book that he read a long time ago that stuck with him, and had set up to produce ten years ago before things fell apart. When he bumped into his old producing partner, she inquired about it, he said at "The Adjustment Bureau" press conference on Saturday -- and that got the ball rolling again. That's when luck, as he calls it, made things happen.

"I went to a concert somewhere and I ended up sitting next to the guy who controls the rights to the movie. And I said to him, 'You're not the guy who controls...' and he said, 'Yeah, why, you want it? I'll give it to you.'"

Because of ongoing legal negotiations over the rights, he couldn't name the book just yet (somehow, we don't think it's "Roger Sterling's Gold"), but says he's almost positive it's going to happen. Having learned so much from Weiner and company -- he shadowed them for hours, he said, watching how they worked -- he's confident that he can "at least shepherd" this project to success.